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An Expanded School
and a Parking Garage
Town Officials Move Forward With School Expansion Plans,
Building New Garage
The school district is simultaneously building
another K-8 school in Sunny Isles Beach for 1,600 students.
By Evan Berkowitz
The Bay Harbor Islands Town Council held a special
meeting to discuss the town’s legal agreement with Miami-Dade County
Public Schools regarding the plans to dramatically expand Ruth K.
Broad Elementary School, during its Jan. 29 meeting.
Ruth K. Broad, located at 1155 93rd Street, first
opened in 1995 and is attended by children from Surfside, Bal
Harbour, Bay Harbor Islands, Eastern Shores and Sunny Isles Beach.
The expanded school, which formerly taught up to sixth grade, will
add seventh and eighth grades. According to the legal agreement with
the county school system, student enrollment for the new facility
will not exceed 1,200 students. There will be no less than $13
million spent by the county for construction and renovation. Town
and school board officials hope to have the expanded components open
by August 2008.
Councilwoman Ileene Wallace, the town’s liaison to
school system staff, said Bay Harbor has had “major disappointments”
with the rebuilding of the school and was “led down this wonderful
primrose path,” at one time being pledged approximately $26 million
by the county.
Town Manager Greg Tindle said the town had been in
discussion with school board staff for quite some time and have
arrived at a good draft of an agreement, but not a final version. He
wanted to let the council examine the agreement now so they could
have everything clarified before the Feb. 12 council meeting, when
they are scheduled to vote.
Two site plans were shown to the council. The first,
which Tindle called the “base model,” contains the guaranteed campus
complex buildings and amenities. He said that if a construction job
bid for plan “A” comes in at less than $13 million and more funds
are available, then upgraded fencing, a walking track, cafeteria and
a music building could also be considered.
The agreement will
also detail the sharing of certain school facilities between the
community and the School Board.
According to the agreement, the School Board agrees
to lease from the town at least 130 parking spaces in a municipal
parking garage across the street from the school, to be built at
West Bay Harbor Drive and 95th Street. The school
district will pay $720 a year per spot.
Councilman Alberto Ruder said traffic circulation was
a major concern for the “quality of life” in the area. He said he
would not approve the project until he had seen the results of a
traffic study due to be released very soon. School system
representatives said they would try to schedule as much construction
work as possible during the summer, with one of the first priorities
being to build a new drop-off/pick-up facility to ease morning and
afternoon traffic. That area is planned to be three times as large
as the existing one. It was also noted that seventh- and
eighth-graders are on different time schedules and will not be
coming and going at the same time as the younger students.
Mike Levine, from Miami-Dade Public Schools, said
1,300 students currently attend Ruth K. Broad, but there would be
fewer after the rebuilding because the school district is
simultaneously building another K-8 school in Sunny Isles Beach for
1,600 students. He said 500 Ruth K. Broad students would be
transferred there.
Bruder said that since Bay Harbor Islands is
responsible for building its parking garage by a certain date, “I
would like to see their [MDCPS] construction schedule be part of
this agreement, because right now we’ve been promised that the
drop-off area’s going to start as early as next August.”
Vice Mayor Kenneth
Weinstein was concerned about the lack of clarity in the legal
agreement. “Unless you put it down now” and make sure everything’s
expressed and addressed as much as possible, there may be problems
later on, he noted. After hearing from many town residents who had
issues or suggestions on the agreement, the vice mayor made a motion
to hold another special council meeting soon “to address this issue
and only this issue.” That motion passed unanimously.
The second item on the agenda was the approval of a
$130,000 contract with engineering and architectural firm Timothy
Haahs & Associates for professional design services related to a
proposed garage structure scheduled for completion by July 2008.
After examining the design plans and hearing input from the public,
the town decided to reconsider awarding the full contract to the
company that, according to their Web site, “is known for designing
parking structures that are user-friendly, cost-effective and
durable.”
Councilman Robert Yaffe made a motion to approve
phase 1-A of the agreement with Tim Haahs, authorizing the company
to work on conceptual or schematic design. This will allow Bay
Harbor to knowledgeably take the next step in seeking a firm to do
the job. The company will receive $35,000 for these services. The
motion passed unanimously.
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